“And the beat goes on……
This time I’ll keep my feet on solid ground
Now I understand myself when I’m down
Like the sweet sound of hip music
There’ll always be something new
To keep the tables turning
Hey, this super song
There’ll never be an ending…And the beat goes on……” The Whispers

“Betting Against Trump Was a Market-Beater. The companies the president disparaged have done much better than those he favored. Remember when President Donald Trump would call out a company by name, causing its stock price to gyrate madly, whacking a few billions off its market value with just one offhanded tweet? ……. Looking back on this one year later is revealing. From the November 2016 election until when we looked at it January 2017, the Oligarch Index was thoroughly trouncing the Drain the Swamp Index, 15.8 percent to 3.5 percent. Trump hadn’t even been sworn in, yet he was already making his heft felt in the marketplace. Things change…….”

So the famous bi-partisan, lobbyist-driven, Washington Swamp beat the Trump-favored Oligarchy in terms of market performance, at least for the first year. During the past year, the Oligarchy started quickly to morph into what it has always had the potential to be: a Cesspool……….

But still the Oligarchy is not done: it has at least three more years, potentially seven more years. The Swamp will expand and get more odorous for now, become more of a new oligarchy Cesspool. Until the next bubble created by deregulation and natural greed and hubris bursts. Then look out for all the flying “stuff“. Then the new need for “government” help and “regulation”. Back to 2008 and 2009, and…… Perhaps hopefully a more-lasting New Deal (after all, Milton Friedman is dead, along with his brilliant but misguided mind and his Nobel)……….

“Gov. Chris Christie likes to live large on other people’s dime, The New York Times reports. Christie let King Abdullah of Jordan pay for a family trip to the country, which included a stay at a hotel that cost around $30,000. In 2012, Christie flew to Israel on a luxurious private jet loaned to him by mogul Sheldon Adelson, who was also opposing legislation to legalize online gambling in New Jersey at the time. Christie later signed that bill into law………..”

The king of humorless Jordan could only pay for Governor Christie’s hotel and food and booze, Jordan not being nearly as rich as Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas vice and the Likud. Mr. Adelson is famous for his genocidal suggestion, I believe in 2013 (google it), that the U.S. should drop nuclear bombs over parts of Iran. Republicans, like Democrats, are hungry for campaign money, any money. What else explains why I should suggest that the Washington Redskins be renamed, if anything else, the Washington Lobbyists?

It is possible the king of Jordan was just doing what Arabs traditionally do for guests, especially prominent guests; he was being hospitable, as only Arabs from tribal societies naturally are. The Governor, being a governor and a politician, could not refuse, not such a large amount of money: many people in his state earn much less every year.

The hunt for money is the only great bipartisan unifier in America now: even foreign policy and national security are divisive now. Money is almost a religion: it makes leaders of both parties bow down and pray, not only five times a day as we Muslims do, but full-time 24/7. And not toward Mecca or Jerusalem or Bethlehem. They pray toward where the money is: be it Las Vegas or Tel Aviv or the nearest Mujahideen Khalq offices in DC. The supremacy of this religion was edified and affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling a few years ago (Citizens United vs. FEC).

The monarch of the Humorless Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan could only pay a paltry 20k or 30k for hotels and booze and food, just like a little bakhsheesh, a little royal tip. The King of Las Vegas and Tel Aviv (or is it Jerusalem) can buy these ‘American leaders’ wholesale. Just imagine what it would be like if some of the kleptocratic oil potentates of our Gulf could openly buy some of these leaders, just as Mr. Adelson buys them. Imagine the possibilities: the sky would be the limit……….CheersMohammed Haider Ghuloum

“Islamic State says its leader has ordered that the organisation start minting gold, silver and copper coins for its own currency, the Islamic dinar. A website affiliated with the militant group said late on Thursday that its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had instructed his followers to start minting the coins to “change the tyrannical monetary system” modelled on western economies that had “enslaved Muslims”. The posting says the order was approved by the group’s shura council, an advisory board………….”A state is not a state without some monetary unit that acts as a medium of exchange and a store of value (this last one is not completely a joke now). Even a Caliphate needs currency. Even an ersatz Caliphate like the Wahhabi one that has sprouted up for now in Iraq and Syria. So they try to go back in history and pick currency names that are supposed to be “Islamic”. But they are not Islamic. The early Muslims just used the ancient names available from heathen countries.

The Jihadis of this Mosul Caliphate don’t realize, or maybe they choose to ignore, that their minted currency carries coin names from ancient heathen societies. Mainly ancient Rome and Greece and Spain:

Dinar: Denarius (plural: Denarii) was the currency of Roman Republic from long before Christ, long before Caesar.

Dirham: Drachma (Draxma) was the currency of Greece before the Euro. It was the Greek currency in ancient times as well.

Riyal or Rial is almost certainly derived from Spanish ‘Real” meaning Royal. the “Real” was also the old Spanish currency. Of course the Iranian base currency is also the Rial, but I’m not suggesting a currency union with the mullahs.

As for the “fils“, I have no idea WTF it derives from. Maybe from the Arabic word Muflis, meaning broke or bankrupt. Which would be appropriate for this word.

At one time not so long ago the Gulf countries used the Indian Rupee as their currency. After Indian independence, a special Gulf Rupee was issued in India just for the Persian Gulf states.

How about picking something from the Old Testament, which Islam agrees with on most things? How about the Shekel? I once suggested in one of my older posts to the GCC they might consider the Shekel (they can call it Shekel 3.0). That was when they were seriously talking about a currency union. It is unlikely to happen now (the union not just the Shekel adoption).CheersMohammed Haider Ghuloum